Formal and informal long-term care provision: A comparative analysis in European context

Sammanfattning: The prevalence of ageing population and growing old-age consumption per capita has raised concern about the fiscal burden of state and family. As individuals age, they have increasing need for assistance in activities of daily living (ADL). Therefore, long-term care makes up the most in the consumption of elderly. State and family are responsible to meet this demand and the care distribution depends on the welfare regime of the country. Using the typology of welfare regime framework, this thesis aims to find interaction between formal and informal sector of long-term care giving to old-age. Applying binary logistic regression, the results show that the likelihood of giving informal care is higher but the likelihood of giving high intensive care is lower when the long-term care expenditure increases. Approaching long-term care by time intensity, this study supports the specialization hypothesis in which the state complements informal care but substitutes high intensive care.